To offer less than asking price even though it's offers in excess of?

[jnfrrss]

This is in England, it was on at 460k, reduced to 440k but now says offers in excess of that. Seems funny to say excess if it's been up for sale for 8 months and not sold so reduced.

I want to offer 395k as thats what I think it's worth

People are very weird when it comes to houses.
It's hardly a major ordeal for a vendor to say no to an offer.

Everyone hoping for Alan Partridge negotiating style in their buyers?
m.youtube.com/watch?v=YCiaWE9w9h0

Because sellers very rarely sell to, or negotiate with, such buyers
This ^^

When we found our house the seller had had people routinely making lowball offers that were silly. They weren't desperate to move and were happy to sit tight so they could get the next house they want.
We went away, looked at the house history on right move, worked out house + inflation to find thr minimum that could be offered without the seller losing money. We made an offer a few thousand higher than that figure and it was accepted. We got it for under the asking price but it was a fair offer.

I can entitely understand why our seller had told other people not to bother. They had clearly seen 'on the market for 9 months' and assumed they were desperate.

"avoid looking like a flaky chancer"

"I just don't get this mentality at all."

Nor I, but for some reason, making sane offers on insanely priced houses is considered “cheeky” and “flaky”.

How is someone who is prepared to stretch their budget to make an offer lower than the asking price on a house they'd really like a flakely chancer?

I don't understand that mentality at all - if I have £400k I can offer the full asking price on a £400k house or 10% under on a £440k house - I'm the same person, the same level of flakiness, making an offer doesn't necessarily make you a chancer of any sort.

I just sold a house with a buyer who made an initial cheeky offer which was negotiated up to something I was happy with and then accepted. However, he lost good faith with me which meant he ended up losing the house when things cropped up later — I wasn't willing to negotiate further at all. It sold a few months later for the price I wanted. Like your sellers, I wasn't in a massive hurry to sell, nothing depended on it.

It sounds like you're happy whichever way it goes though, so you're in a strong position that way! Doesn't hurt to offer what you're willing to pay. :)

I agree. Buying and selling houses is a game - no one need get offended because there's nothing personal going on. The buyer wants as cheap as possible, the seller wants the opposite. Perhaps there is common ground and there will be a sale, perhaps not. No need for interpretation of anyone's character, surely.

and like others have said, I wouldn't assume a probate sale meant the sellers were in a hurry. Quite the opposite in fact!

Nor I, but for some reason, making sane offers on insanely priced houses is considered “cheeky” and “flaky”

But only the OP suggests it’s overprived massively. It may be they’re in no hurry to sell. It may be probate has taken a while and they tested the water with a higher asking price to give more wiggle room. It might be they didn’t market aggressively as they wanted time to empty the property.

Nor I, but for some reason, making sane offers on insanely priced houses is considered “cheeky” and “flaky”.

People seem to think that vendors aspirations for the asking price should be respected, even if they're delusional.

I don't get it either - and I'm certainly not abiding by it. I'll make an offer based on what I think the house is worth.

Because sellers very rarely sell to, or negotiate with, such buyers. Christ, are you simple

In this instance I have reported this. As it happens no I do not have additional needs but you could cause great offence by this sort of statement and on something like this thread there really is no need to personally abuse people for the simole reason they don't agree with you. I was tempted to let it stand as it says more about you than me, but due to its potential for offence I've asked the mods to remove.

And as others said, no one cares if the buyer is so petty they don't want to negotiate with her, she doesn't want to buy at their price or anywhere close to it. No ones opinions will change on that, no matter how abusive and personally offensive you decide to get. She might want it but not at any cost.

@m0therofdragons you can check what they sold it for on Zoopla.

I do think that estate agents have something to answer for if a house of over priced.

They know they need to come in with a high or comparable offer to get the business, people often go for the agent who values the highest. Agents also try to keep the market articifically high. The problem is a fe sellers actually think the agent valuation is what there house is worth. They fail to understand the above two factors and it's no more than a guide.

They they decide what they will do with thr money, what kind of house they can buy next or whatever, and think anyone wanting to pay less is getting a "bargain" when in fact they are simply paying the market rate. And that is what it's actually worth. So they cling on hoping someone will pay it for a long time.

Agents also fuck with sellers and tell them it's the market and that's why it's not selling, nothing it. Where as anyone with half a brain simply Google's all recent sales within a five mile radius and sees if other properties are selling.

But only the OP suggests it’s overprived massively.

Plus the 8 months on the market and the already reduced price.

OP, I wouldn't listen to popular opinion on this one.

It's one reason the housing market has been able to get into such a mess in the first instance.

We've lived in an age of 'lets try it pricing' and buyers have been lapping up the agent bullshit. Prices have grown at astonomical rates, and this is genuinely one of the causes.

Foxtons, KFH, Andrews and a few others still go by this ethos and in my area they price a good 20-25% higher than the property value.

They also price a good 15% higher than other agents, most of whom have already priced above what they think the property is worth. As standard, most listings will be priced at 5-10% over their actual value on instruction from the agents.

You make a good point. Don't offer anything which is in effect stupid, just to abide by stupid seller expectations.

A house is only worth what people are prepared to pay and in some areas of London, that's resulted in houses selling 20% lower than advertised. The fact they originally had it on for £460k is neither here nor there.

We just bought a house listed at £460k for £395k. It had been on the market for 2 days.

The sellers were realistic and listening to the market, not what they wanted to hear.

Offer what you are prepared to pay and if they say no then that's that.

I don't see why some automatically assume anything too low is a cheeky offer. Yes some people do make them, but it is a buyers market and 95% of sales are needing to be reeduced because sellers are pricing too high!

Why anyone listens to agents in this day and age is beyond me. Very few are good. Most will tell a buyer what they want to hear to get them on the books. The amount of threads alluding to no viewings is evidence in itself.

We priced correctly. Had 10 viewings in 7 days and 8 of those viewings were offers.

It really isn't rocket science.

Depends patti.
10% under on a £440k house if it says OIEO seems cheeky to me, but fine if it's just a normal asking price.

But then again, all the OIEO houses we saw were fairly priced a bit lower than what you might expect an asking price to be so to me going 10% under those prices would seem cheeky and like a chancer.
We saw 2 similar homes on nearby streets. The probate one was OIEO and needed some updating. The other was an asking price and was reasonably modern, if not to our tastes. You could tell looking at them and by recent sales in the area that the OIEO property had already accounted for the extra work required.

If you really want it OP and want to put in a lower offer, might be worth getting a pal to do and do a viewing and then verbally making a low offer that gets quickly withdrawn afterwards. Something in the region of what you want to pay.

Probate sales initially people can be quite clear on what they want and not want to go below. But the council tax exemption is only for 6 months after probate and that's something that can focus people's minds. If this has been on the market 8 months the family are presumably now incurring costs due to that, not to mention them having reduced already.

10% under on a £440k house if it says OIEO seems cheeky to me, but fine if it's just a normal asking price.

I don't know why OIEO makes a difference. It's just a marketing ploy used by the seller.

Yeah, I mean, they can ask for OIEO if they want. It's a free country. Means fuck all though, and estate agents are obliged to pass on any offers to the vendor.

Have bought six properties in my lifetime and rented many times. I have ALWAYS offered at least 10% less than asking price. It's a starting point.

We once bought a house at auction in Melbourne and used a professional buyer. He saved us 15%, after his costs.

People's emotions muddy the waters.

Ours was on for £475k, got it for £417k in the end. Worth an ask. They can only say no.

I don't know why OIEO makes a difference. It's just a marketing ploy used by the seller
Perhaps, but in our area most of the houses marked as OIEO were ones where people had passed away (dated / need a bit more tlc) and the properties were already substabtially lower than other less dated properties.
Same was true when my uncle sold a probate. They could have asked for more bit went for a fair asking price OIEO.

OIEO to me (especially when the house needs tlc) says 'we have already considered the work required'.

At least that seems to be the case in our area.

Within 10% is a fair opening gambit IMO.

Ours was on for 265. Was reduced down to 245. We offered 205 and ended up paying 218.

You can make the offer, but they’re highly unlikely to accept. I would assume that they have been offered below asking price already.

This thread has been interesting to read for in the insights into other buyers/sellers' perspectives. I definitely see it as purely a business transaction. I would never consider selling to one person over another because I liked them better/ thought they would fit into the house better. Likewise, I wouldn't expect sellers to expect me to consider their family history in the house etc. when putting in a offer.